File Photo. Adem Altan—AFP
Admitting progress on national action plan has been slow, prime minister says fight against extremism will continue.
Islamabad on Sunday pledged further action to combat militants, but Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted progress had often been slow, speaking just days after a deadly attack by heavily armed gunmen on a university campus killed 21 people.
The assault bore a chilling resemblance to the December 2014 Peshawar school assault in which more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed, prompting the government to launch a National Action Plan cracking down on extremism.
Sharif said on Sunday that Pakistan would continue the fight against militants. “We will fulfill this responsibility,” he told reporters in London. “In certain areas of NAP the progress is slow, but in many other areas work has been started,” Sharif added.
The National Action Plan saw the creation of military courts and the resumption of executions after a six-year moratorium, and the initiatives were credited with making 2015 the least deadly in terms of militant attacks since the formation of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in 2007. The Pakistan military also intensified an ongoing campaign against extremism following the 2014 assault.
Sharif said that Pakistan and Afghanistan had an agreement that both countries would not allow militants to use their territory to launch attacks on their neighbor. However, Pakistan officials said the university attack was orchestrated from Afghanistan and that they have arrested five Pakistani facilitators.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan are strictly following this agreement, but there are certain elements in Afghanistan who on their own are attacking Pakistan,” Sharif said. “In 2014 our school was attacked from Afghanistan. Such attacks should be stopped,” Sharif said.